NO. 2 SALVAGE PROGRAM, I95O-I95I — COOPER I3 



KANSAS 



Archeological work in Kansas by the River Basin Surveys during 

 this 2-year period was confined to reconnaissance of the site of the 

 proposed Lovewell Reservoir, one of the few proposed or potential 

 water-control projects in that State that had not been previously 

 investigated, at least briefly. 



Lovewell Reservoir site. — The Lovewell Reservoir, a Bureau of 

 Reclamation project, will extend approximately 6 miles upstream from 

 an earth-fill dam which will span White Rock Creek some 15 miles 

 above the point at which this intermittent stream enters the Republi- 

 can River. The valley here is fairly broad and is flanked on the north 

 by gentle slopes to the upland and on the south by an escarpment 

 from which steep slopes descend to the valley floor. Dense stands 

 of deciduous trees line the banks of the creek and its tributaries, and 

 some timber grows on the south slopes. 



Two trips were made to the area during the summer of 1951 — one 

 of five days in June, the other of four days in September — during 

 which all the terrain to be affected by the reservoir was examined. 

 Seven sites attributable to aboriginal activity were observed within 

 and near the limits of the future pool. Two of these (14JW204 and 

 207) are mounds; the remainder are occupational sites. With one 

 exception (14JW202), where a few flint objects were found among 

 the debris of a modern homestead and may owe their presence to the 

 activities of a collector, the occupational sites (14JW1, 2, 201, and 

 205) yielded pottery fragments, seemingly representative of a single 

 complex. In one instance, however, concentration of sherds at one 

 end of the site and of stone artifacts at the other end suggests the 

 possibility that two components are present. Minor excavations were 

 undertaken in one of the sites (14JW1) by the Nebraska State His- 

 torical Society in 1937, but the main results of that extremely limited 

 work consist of pointing up the importance of the site rather than of 

 solving the problems to which it is relevant. Wedel has called at- 

 tention to the fact that the pottery resembles that from sites attributed 

 to the Oneota aspect (Hill and Wedel, 1936, pp. 40, Gy; Wcdel, 1935, 

 pp. 227, 229; 1940, p. 337), and little can be added to his observation 

 until this or a closely related site has been more intensively investi- 

 gated. Judging from the relatively small collection from the I-ovewell 

 Reservoir area, there are appreciable differences between the ceramics 

 there and those from the Leary site, the geographically closest site 

 attributed to the Oneota aspect which has been described in print 

 (Hill and Wedel, 1936). These include the predominant inclusion of 



